Soundabout Preview: Always-present Mac Audio Utility

AudioEase previewed a new utility at NAMM that integrates with your Mac to provide ever-present sound file previewing, editing, and sample utilities. (Thanks to our readers who picked up on this in Barry Wood’s NAMM Oddities.)

Soundabout has a lot of tricks up its sleeve:

It provides waveform previewing, auditioning, and selection tools.

It integrates with Finder, so it’s always available when you navigate sound files.

It integrates with iTunes.

It drags. It drops.

It edits, slices, and dices.

It automatically converts files to MP3 for email.

It integrates with Pro Tools, automatically aligning to the cursor.

It’s unclear whether the integration will extend to other apps, as well; at this point all we know is what you can see in the video. We’ll keep an eye on this one; will be great to see this idea develop into a finished product.

Of course, there’s already another Mac-only utility that does all of this and a lot more: Iced Audio’s excellent AudioFinder. The difference is that AudioFinder does a lot more, but within a window, rather than integrating as Soundabout does in the Finder. Certainly, Soundabout’s purpose seems to be lightweight, always-on access, whereas AudioFinder is the heavy hitter — your pocket Leatherman and your Dremel tool, in other words. (For instance, AudioFinder has lop BPM detection, a BPM tap pad, a reference tone generator, a delay calculator, Audio Unit effects features, etc. But it doesn’t pop up in the Finder.)

It’s not hard to imagine sample addicts using both — AudioFinder now, and Soundabout when it comes out. We’ll be waiting.